


The Ties That Bind

by love_killed_the_superstar



Series: But Beautiful We Three Are [6]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Human, Clothing swap, F/F, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Implied Sexual Content, Morning After
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 15:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7444942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_killed_the_superstar/pseuds/love_killed_the_superstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>6. “You're always working so late these days, it feels like we never spend time together anymore.”<br/>Yellow rolled her eyes. “I'd have thought Head Girl would have had more pressing matters to attend to than to bother me when I'm studying.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ties That Bind

**Author's Note:**

> Soooooooo I'm not gonna be able to get the last fic out in the space of a few hours (plus its already like 3am GMT) but I'll still put up the last part, even if I've missed the end of the polypearls bomb. Oh well, it was fun. This was originally supposed to be steamy make-outs to relieve tension, but instead it turned into a concoction of flirting, angst and a little something extra, oops. The punchline of this story, however, was the original concept, so that had to stay even if it doesn't quite flow with the rest of the story. I just wanted a lighthearted end to it, okay.  
> Quick note: in wizarding NEWT exams, E stands for 'exceeds expectations' and I believe is an equivalent to a B grade. Also, if you want an interesting song to fit the mood of Blue and Yellow walking back towards the common room, I'd recommend 'In My Life' by Judy Collins.

“So the bird-summoning charm is pronounced _avis_... and the motion is... urgh, why do they even call it a charm if it's under transfiguration, anyway...”

Yellow grunted in frustration and leaned back in her seat. Her transfiguration finals were in under a week, and she was beyond stressed. She could hardly remember the topics and spells she had studied in her sixth year (heck, she could hardly remember spells she'd learned three weeks ago) and to her dismay a lot of sixth year content had come up on the exams she had already sat in other subjects, which gave her the impression that as far as transfiguration went she was beyond screwed.

Blue was lucky, a lot of the topics that had come up on the exams so far had been things she'd been good at, and she had excelled with little more than refresher glances at her notes and sheer luck. Yellow had been seriously struggling not to fall behind, and she knew if she sank below Es her mother would kill her. She was expected to hold a place in the ministry like her mother, the prestigious Ms Diamond of Magical Law Enforcement, and she couldn't do that if she sank below an E grade. The stress was really eating her alive.

She glanced down at her watch. It was nearly eleven, meaning that the library would be closing soon. She supposed she'd better be getting back to the common room, too. Yellow reluctantly shut her textbook and began clearing away her things. Her gaze lingered on the empty mug of hot chocolate Pearl had brought her earlier and smiled despite her impending doom; trust her girlfriends to take care of her even in her darkest hours. She was sure she had snapped at her that she was busy, too. Hopefully Pearl would understand – she too was constantly under a fair amount of pressure imposed by her own mother, and was surely watching Yellow suffering in the wake of NEWT exams and seeing herself in a year's time.

As she was zipping up her bag, slender arms wrapped around her, tugging her into a hug, and Yellow very nearly punched the offending stranger in the face instinctively.

“Woah, woah, it's just me.”

Yellow turned around and glared.

“Blue, what are you doing, spooking me like that?! You know what Madam Pince would do to me if I'd screamed?”

Blue grinned and gave her an apologetic kiss to the cheek, soft and brief.

“Sorry, Yellow. I just wanted to walk you back to the common room. You're always working so late these days, it feels like we never spend time together anymore.”

Yellow rolled her eyes. “I'd have thought Head Girl would have had more pressing matters to attend to than to bother me when I'm studying.”

Blue blushed a little. “I've already done my rounds patrolling for the night. I wanted to see you back, anyway. I miss you.”

Now it was Yellow's turn to blush. “We're in study sessions together every day. You see me all the time. It's Pearl who should be missing us, we're way too busy to spend time with her.”

“That's true. She brought me a drink earlier, though. What a sweetheart.” Blue sighed. “I miss her too, of course. I miss both of you. You're always so focused on your work, I send you glances and you don't even look up. I hate exam periods, I always feel so isolated.”

“Well, no need to keep complaining about it,” Yellow grumbled. “I'm here now. You have my undivided attention, so...”

Blue understood. With a smile, she pressed another chaste kiss to Yellow's lips, before taking her hand and leading her out of the library. The corridors were silent, save for their echoing footsteps against cold stone floors. The only students permitted to be out of their dormitories at this time of night were seventh years studying, and most of them had either resigned to their common rooms or given up on studying altogether by 11pm.

“I love the quiet corridors, though,” Blue piped up cheerfully. “It's depressing when I'm doing my rounds, but with you here, I feel like I could take on a basilisk and come out unharmed. And it's pretty peaceful, without the younger years constantly running around and making noise.”

“Don't judge, we used to be them,” Yellow reminded her with a smile. “Although I admit, we were never the ones to obnoxiously push past. I like to think we had some more respect for the older years than they give to us now.”

Blue snorted. “Respect? You threatened Rose Quartz in The Three Broomsticks on our date just because you thought she was talking to Pearl again. You found every excuse under the sun to butt heads with her.”

“She was only one year group above us!” protested Yellow. “Rose Quartz doesn't count. Besides, she was trouble and you know it. Trying to lead our girl astray. The nerve...”

“So you still won't admit you were jealous?” Blue sang, tweaking a bang by Yellow's chin that refused to stay put.

“She was a bad influence!” insisted Yellow, blushing furiously. “But, yes, I suppose I didn't like her trying to snatch Pearl up like some side dish for her. Pearl is more than a pet project, you know?! She deserves to be loved. She deserves to be-”

“Hey, hey,” Blue interrupted, squeezing Yellow's shoulder. “Rose is gone now. Off doing who knows what. I think she's an auror. Point is, she's not after Pearl's heart anymore, so you can relax.”

“Oh, I know that! I just... get caught up sometimes.” Yellow shuddered. “To think I might have to see her when I'm commuting into the ministry next year...”

“You're still going on about that?” Blue asked with a frown, slipping her arm around Yellow's waist. “You're eighteen now, Yellow. Your mom has no hold on what you do with your life anymore.”

“Are you serious?” Yellow laughed, but there was no humour in the sound. “My mother controls everything I do. If I think for myself for more than a second she flips her lid. I don't even know how telling her about our relationship is going to fly with her. I'll probably get kicked out, which is why I'll need a job to support myself. Which is where the ministry job comes in.”

“So even when she's not controlling your life she's controlling your life.” Blue's laugh sounded more akin to a sob. “You're never going to be free of her.”

“Hey.” Yellow drew her in closer, pressing a kiss into her hair. “Please, don't think too hard about it. This is how it's always been. To tell you the truth, I'll be glad to be shot of her. It'll be a relief, so please...”

“It's not right,” Blue whispered. “I just... I wish it wasn't so hard for us. You know?”

“I do, my love,” murmured Yellow. “I do.”

Their walk back to the Slytherin common room was conducted in near silence, with Blue's head resting comfortably in the crook of Yellow's neck. The silence hanging over them was now not only tense from the impending fear of upcoming exams, but now with the sombre end to their conversation and the subject matter at hand. Once again, Yellow cursed her mother for somehow worming her uptight self into her private life, too.

“Well,” Blue murmured at last, as they stopped at the entrance to the Slytherin common room, “here we are.”

“Here we are,” Yellow agreed, with a sigh that carried so much weight behind it.

Blue stood up on her tiptoes to kiss Yellow once more, murmuring, “You sure have grown tall,” before kissing her again. Yellow hugged Blue close to her, uncaring of a disapproving portrait somewhere behind them making a disgusted comment. She waved a simple lumos spell in its direction, scaring the figure in the portrait into hiding.

“I don't want you to go,” she murmured, gripping onto Blue tightly as she went to pull away. “I'm too stressed to sleep alone tonight.”

Blue blushed deeply. “That's sweet,” she whispered, “but, uh... there hasn't been a non-Slytherin enter the dormitories in centuries, so... and, we... you know, I get that we've talked about it before, but...”

“We don't have to do that if you don't want,” Yellow said hurriedly. Still losing her fingers in Blue's mop of dark hair. “B-But, for the Slytherin thing, nobody will have to know. We have curtains on our bedsteads for that, so...”

Blue pulled away, looking Yellow in the eye.

“I want to, Yellow,” she said softly, voice like honey. “But... if you're just doing this because you're upset, I don't want that for you.”

“I need the stress relief, honestly,” Yellow confessed, gaze flickering away from Blue's face to just about anywhere else as her face heated up. “I'm not like you, Blue. I've been really freaking out about these exams, and – and it's eating me up inside. I could really do with your help unwinding, if you'll have me.”

“Do you think Pearl will mind?” Blue asked softly, after Yellow gave the wall the fortnight's password. She stared into the darkness of the chamber that appeared, gripping Yellow tight. “That we're doing this without her?”

“Pearl will understand,” Yellow said, with an air of confidence, quickly diminishing as she added, “her time will come with both of us, and maybe... all together... if you're both into that.”

With a deepening blush, Blue grinned.

“We'll figure it out. I know we will.”

 

…

 

Blue knew she was attracting odd looks, but she couldn't pinpoint why. She knew virginity was little more than a social stigma, so why were so many people staring at her? Was it that obvious what she and Yellow had done last night?

Even Pearl had given her a knowing smirk with raised eyebrows over the table at breakfast. She couldn't have known, right? Had someone heard them in the night and spread it around the school already? They'd been so careful not to draw attention – they'd used a silencing charm for the person being treated to mute any noises, they'd kept the curtains well and truly shut, and Blue had been forced to sneak out before the morning bell rang, forcing her to dress herself again in the dark and not even have enough time to appreciate Yellow smiling up at her tiredly with an afterglow so beautiful she could have cried.

At last, the penny dropped, when a third year whispered much too close for comfort, “Why is the head girl wearing a Slytherin tie?”

Oh, damn. Damn, damn, damn.

Yellow seemed to have come to the same conclusion, horror evident on her face as she glanced down at the tie she had also naively thrown on that morning. To her dismay, she was in proud Ravenclaw colours.

Pearl's shuddering laughter could be heard from the other side of the hall.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes the title is a pun I'm so glad I made that creative decision  
> Also I would like to point out that I'm not tagging it as underage for three reasons: A) The legal age for sex in the UK (where this is set) is 16, and B) Both Blue and Yellow are eighteen in this chapter, so they are considered legal adults in the UK system, not sure about anywhere else, and C) The scene is only referenced, not explicitly written, so.  
> Anyway, just one more chapter! Thank you so much for being so kind to me this bomb, this is my first time writing polypearls and it's been so great that people have been enjoying my work so much!!


End file.
